Scepter Chant List I T'4d with last Weekend at PTQ in Garden City Michigan

[forests failed you]

I recently played an Extended PTQ in Garden City Michigan, and ended up finishing in the top four.  I went 6-0-2 in the Swiss, and lost in the semis to my teamate Paul Nicolo (fishalo) who ended up losing in the finals to an aggro Life from the Loam deck.

Last December I won the Garden City PTQ playing a No Stick list and won a trip to PT Honolulu.  Unfortunately, this time around I was not so lucky; and met my demise at the end of a bunch of Cabal Therepies and Duresses.  Anyways, I thought I would post up my decklist and a few comments, and see if anybody had any suggestions on the list.

4 Isochron's Scepter
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Solem Similacrum

3 Wrath of God
1 Decree of Justice

2 Lightning Helix
3 Fire Ice
2 Ori'ms Chant

2 Teferi

4 Counterspell
2 Spellsnare
2 Absorb

3 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Fact or Fiction
2 Cunning Wish

3 Chrome Mox

4 Island
1 Snow Covered Island
1  Plains
1 Snow Covered Plains
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Temple of the False God
1 Academy Ruins
1 Mikokoro Center of the Sea
1 Minamo School at Waters Edge
4 Flooded Strand
1 Seat of Synod
1 Shivan Reef
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
3 Hallowed Fountain

Sideboard

2 Dwarven Blastminer
3 Kataki Wars Wage
2 Disenchant
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Lightning Helix
1 Orims Chant
1 Urza's Rage
1 Brain Freeze
1 Wing Shards
2 Tormod's Crypt

This is not arimer on Chant... If you are looking for that go to SCG, Sean McKeown has a nice primer on Chant that just went up today.

 So, a lot of the deck is pretty self explainatory at this point.  Teferi + Scepter/Chant is a combo.  Scepter + Helix beats an aggro deck.  Here are the points of interest that make this list a bit special from the ones currently being discussed on SCG.

Academy Ruins - Is the stone nutz.  It allows you to Pitch cards like Scepter and Explosives to gain card advantage off Thirst and then replay them.   It also gives you easy access to a scepter if you are unfortunate enough to have your first one brushed away by Putrify or something else.

Engineered Explosives -  Almost aways an efficient two for one.  It gives you a maindeck answer to Pithing Needle game one, while at the same time hitting Boros or Affinity's guys.  Has mad synergy with Academy Ruins, as it becomes recurrable spot removal if you need it.

Solem Similacrum - Was a great tool all day long.  He stalls on the ground and fixes your mana at the same time.  IF there is a card that FLow decks hate to see it is definately Solem.  He is also a savage beating with Ruins.  You end up paying 7 mana to get him back and put him into play.  It is the same thing as plaincycling Dragaon except it puts the land directly into play and blocks too!

Temple of the Flase God -  was the best land in my deck all day long.  It allows you to tap and play or activate a scepter.  It frees up your blue mana to cast counter spell and fact or fictions on an opponents turn.

Dwarven Blastminer -  I wanted him against Tron and Teps.  And I had him against those decks.  He singlehandedly crippled opponents.

Kataki - Was a stone beating.  Do NOT PLAY THIS DECK WITHOUT KATAKIS IN THE BOARD>  YOU NEED THEM.

Enjoy.  Comments.

?

[UR]

Just one question (since we can't really comment on a deck that went 6-0-2 ): Did you ever activate Mikokoro, Center of the Sea? I've seen this thing in sooo many lists over the past few years and I can't remember a single activation that was worthwile. Wouldn't you rather have something like the fourth Hallowed Fountain in that slot?

[ErkBek]

You've got so many one-of's its like a vintage deck.

Has Teferi permanently replaced Exalted Angel in scepter chant?

I've heard both sides regarding the Boros matchup, do you consider it favorable? I've heard so much mixed stuff about that matchup, I don't even know anymore.

[Polynomial P]

Congratulations on doing so well. Please comment on the inclusion of Absorb and why did you choose this over less expensive and less mana intensive counterspells, like mana leak, or hinder. Overall, I like your list alot.

[freakish777]

The following cards seem over-priced for what the do in Extended:

Absorb (can't put it on stick, when do you actually want to tap 3 mana for a counter?  Doesn't play nice with Temple of the False Gods)
Similacrum (a 4 mana 2/2, I could be wrong about this, just doesn't look good on paper)
Urza's Rage (when do you have 10 mana to burn your opponent out?  do your matches ever actually go long enough that you want to end them quicker?)


I'm surprised you're not running 4 Thirsts, to be honest.  Granted I don't play a lot of Extended, but Thirst seems ridiculous in any format.  How was Spellsnare?  It seems like an absolute beating against Loam decks and TEPS (for their tutors).  Did you consider Counterbalance + Top out of curiosity?

[forests failed you]

In response to all of your questions...  Complete Battle of Darrowshire...

Teferi is definately insane in this deck, and IMO completely replaces any need for Exalted Angel.  In a control mirror he is the only card that actually matters.  If one can plop her into play the game is pretty much over.  Not to mention that having a hard lock over the game allows you to simply ignore your opponent, and use your life total as a buffer while you dig and seal the game up.

Solem Similacrum was spicey for me all day long.  I wanted more artifacts in the deck, but didn't want to compromise my mana base by running artifact lands.  Solem has great utility, and allows you to quickly get exactly what you need.. Mana.  Basically, no creature that this deck can muster will actually fight a Troll Ascetic, so you do the next best thing.  You play a chump blocker that puts you ahead, and can be regrown while you build up your mana and find the hard lock.  It may look janky on paper, but Ruinsing back Solem and dropping him every turn against a random aggro deck makes for very sad aggro players.  It is an overwhelming board, tempo and card advantage engine.

Absorb is good, because it doesn't get Spell Snared.  That is it.  Against Boros or any aggro deck it is Counterspell and a Time Walk, because you negate their swing.  Absorb is awesome in the mirror because it gives you two more hard counters than your opponent has to stop an opposing Teferi, or a Turn 3 Scepter with counter backup. 

I did in fact Rage with Kicker two players FTW.  I probably would have won anyways though.  The Rage may have just been overkill. 

Mikokoro is very very strong, especially when you combine it it Minamo.  In a control Mirror where both players want to leave mana up every turn, it is very strong to just make them draw cards on their end step when they have to discard.  Also, in a lot of match ups you simply want more cards, and can ignore an opponent.  If you have Teferi down, perhaps you just want to dig to find a Cunning Wish to win the game with your Scepter.  The lands are very good for just racing to the combo.  Also, in a control Mirror the ability to make both players draw a bunch of cards with the lands enables a game winning Brain Freeze velry easily.  I made that play a few times at the event as well.

Thanks for the comments.  Feedback on possible changes?

[SonataOfTheCathedral]

Brian, the way the metagame looks. I think going up to four Blastminers would be the right choice. I think against a huge chunk of your bad matches, you would want to see them ASAP. I like the Wing Shards a lot actually. I think SpellSnare is getting weaker and weaker as the metagame is progressing. It's only the nuts v aggro loam still.

Have you tried Force Spike?

[forests failed you]

Force Spike is really, really, situational.  Sure, it imprints onto a Chrome Mox in the midgame, however there is nothing worse than your opponent casting a turn three Dark Confidant with one mana up and being completely helpless.  Spellsnare is also good, because it is still useful against decks like UW Tron, because you can counter their Signets and Remands no matter what abusive amount of Mana they have available to them.  I was really happy with the Snares in the maindeck and will most likely be moving up to three of Pennsylvania. 

And you are soooo correct.  Spells Snaring a Devestating Dreams is the dumbest blow out EVER.

[Roxas]

Nice job making the top four. I like your list, though I'd consider think it'd be good if you could find room for the third Helix in the maindeck.

It'd be nice if you could give a short report, or at least mention what you played against each round.

[SonataOfTheCathedral]

Alright, but I say four Blastminer. I wish I had them in my deck and it was completely different than yours!

[forests failed you]

Round 1:  Goblins (Win) - Scepter Chant and he scoops both games.

Round 2:  Chant Mirror (Draw) - I hate this match up, if you don't win game one the best you can hope for is a draw.  That is exactly what happened here.  I lost a very close game one, and then had to fight a very hard battle game two to win.  By the time we started game three there was only 5 Minutes left in the round, and neither of us had a shot at winning.

Round 3: Chant Mirror (Win) - The Chant mirror only cares about two things.  Mana and Teferi.  Your ability to resolve the later, relates almost exclusively to the former. 

Round 4:  UW TRON (Win)  -  A bad match up, but I drew really well.  I was on the play and cast a mox, and a scepter on Fire Ice.  On turn two I Iced his land, and on three I played a scepter and Imprinted Counterspell with mana up to cast it.  Game two he played a turn one Urza's Mine and I played land, mox, Blastminer.  GG.

Round 5: Boros (Win)

Round 6:  Chapin Zoo Deck (Draw) -  I won game one, and we played a very long game two.  I thought I had a very good shot at winning but ended up losing with not enough time to win game three.  I would have won game three if I had more time.

Round 7:  Agro Loam (Win) - game one I win early by sticking a scepter on chant that he can't kill.  And, game two he gets a game loss for drawing too many cards.

Round 8: TEPS (Win) - Chant actually can never lose this match up.  Game 1 I beat him with 2 Scepters on counterspell and 2 chants in hand.  GG.  Game two I have a turn one blastminer.

TOP 8

Affinity (win) -  he blows me out game one.   Games 2 and three I protect Kataki and destroy him.

Flow (Loss) - I draw poorly and mulligan.  Paul has very strong starts.  Duress, and Therepy.  I eventually get beat down with equipment.